humor books

Humor Author/Entrepreneur Takes His Message To The Triangle

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Cris Cohen talks business, baseball, books.

May 25, 2011 (Cary, NC) – “How I learned through the Miracle League that baseball can be fun and not just the forced labor camp experience I remember from childhood”

Cris Cohen

is one of two messages that humor writer Cris Cohen of Cary, author of the irreverent blog “Nothing In Particular,” is taking around the Triangle to various groups as he promotes his upcoming book Staying Crazy To Keep From Going Insane.

The Miracle League of the Triangle is a baseball league for children with special needs, including Cohen’s own son, Max. Through volunteering with the League, Cohen says he’s finally learned to love the game, and he’ll share his insights with the Durham Rotary Club on July 18.

“It turns out that, unlike what I experienced during my childhood, verbal abuse from adults is not supposed to be part of the game,” Cohen said with a smile. “I grew up thinking that baseball’s official rules and regulations had passages about the distance between the bases, what equipment was allowed, and how adults should force kids to experience the kind of psychological trauma normally only seen in prisoner of war camps.”

Before then, Cohen will present his talk “Just try. Just ask. You’ll be amazed at what might happen: My entrepreneurial adventure” with the Success Team Speed Networking group in Raleigh on May 31, with the West Raleigh Rotary Club on June 2, with the Wake County Women Business Owners Network on June 10, and with the Triangle Community of Developing Careerists on June 23. These follow a similar presentation he made to the Triangle Business Alliance on May 19.

“I am really grateful to these organizations for letting me speak to them,” Cohen said. “It is possible that they thought I was someone else when they booked me, but I am not going to try and clear up any such confusion until after the appearances.”

“Just try. Just ask” addresses Cohen’s humorous yet successful efforts at setting up a small press – Tyrannosaurus Max Press – through which he’ll publish Staying Crazy To Keep From Going Insane and other works, and the celebrity endorsements it’s already received (Dave Barry, T.C. Boyle and Drew Dernavich) because he wasn’t afraid to ask.

The book will be a collection of humor columns Cohen wrote for several newspapers when he lived in California and new ones he’s written since he and his family moved to Cary in 2008. Cohen intends to donate the majority of the proceeds from sales of the book to the Miracle League of the Triangle.

For more information on Cris Cohen and his book, and to see his evolving schedule of speaking engagements, visit www.stayingcrazy.com. Cohen’s blog is located at criscohen.typepad.com.

About Cris Cohen:

Cris Cohen, the author of the Nothing In Particular blog, was born in Buffalo, NY, and grew up in a suburb of Los Angeles, eventually graduating from the University of Southern California. After a stint in rock radio in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, Cris started writing his humor column for a collection of California newspapers. He eventually gravitated toward the tech world and Silicon Valley, working for companies such as Netscape and Cisco Systems. Cris, his wife Michele, and their young son Max moved to Cary, North Carolina, in 2008. Cris’ blog is available at http://criscohen.typepad.com. His first book, Staying Crazy To Keep From Going Insane, is due out in the fall of 2011. For more information visit www.stayingcrazy.com.

“Staying Crazy” Gets Celebrity Endorsements

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Fellow authors praise Cris Cohen’s upcoming book.

March 17, 2011 (Cary, NC) – Staying Crazy To Keep From Going Insane, the upcoming book by Cary, NC, writer and blogger Cris Cohen, has caught the eyes of both Pen/Faulkner Award-winning author T.C. Boyle and Pulitzer Prize-winning humor columnist Dave Barry.

Staying Crazy To Keep From Going Insane, due out in the fall, will be a collection of Cohen’s humor columns, most from the years he spent as a columnist for several newspapers in California as well as some new ones he’s written since he and his family moved to Cary, NC., in 2008. Cohen is publishing the book as a way to raise money for the Miracle League of the Triangle, a baseball league for children with special needs. Cohen’s nine-year-old son is a member of the league.

Cohen sent pre-publication copies of his book to Boyle and Barry in hopes of getting an endorsement to include on the book’s cover. He wasn’t disappointed.

“Very funny stuff,” said T.C. Boyle, “and your very strong voice shines through.”

And from Dave Barry: “A fine book for a fine cause.”

How big of a deal is this for Cohen? “Huge,” he said. “I have enormous respect for T.C.’s writing talent. He’s almost not human. It’s like the planet that sent Superman also sent TC, except, instead of the ability to fly and a cape, they gave him an immense vocabulary and a really good pen. Although, maybe he has a cape too, but he just saves it for formal occasions.

“And as for Dave, well, every since college I’ve wanted to be Dave Barry. Most people dream of being the music stars they listen to or the actors they see in the movies. I wanted to be like that humor writer who was known for using a Rollerblade Barbie to set a pair of underwear on fire.”

Dave Barry

Dave Barry has been an author and syndicated humor columnist for 25 years. His work has appeared in more than 500 newspapers in the United States and abroad, and he has had 30 books published. Two of his books were the basis for the CBS sitcom “Dave’s World.” He won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 1988.

T.C. Boyle has published 22 books of fiction, including his most recent novel When The Killing’s Done (2011). He is Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Southern California and his work has been translated into more than 24 foreign languages. His short stories have been published in most major American magazines, and he has received several literary awards, including the PEN/Faulkner Prize for best novel of the year (World’s End, 1988).

“The fact that these guys took the time to read my galleys is mind-blowing enough,”

T.C. Boyle

Cohen said. “To get quotable endorsements back from them is almost too much too handle. When they wrote back, I needed to slip on a blood pressure cuff and breathe into a paper bag.”

Cris Cohen is also the author of the humor blog “Nothing In Particular: Trying Not To Take Life Too Seriously” (criscohen.typepad.com).

For more information on Staying Crazy To Keep From Going Insane, visit www.stayingcrazy.com and the Facebook page: www.facebook.com/stayingcrazy.

 

About Cris Cohen:

Cris Cohen, the author of the Nothing In Particular blog, was born in Buffalo, NY, and grew up in a suburb of Los Angeles, eventually graduating from the University of Southern California. After a stint in rock radio in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, Cris started writing his humor column for a collection of California newspapers. He eventually gravitated toward the tech world and Silicon Valley, working for companies such as Netscape and Cisco Systems. Cris, his wife Michele, and their young son Max moved to Cary, North Carolina, in 2008. Cris’ blog is available at http://criscohen.typepad.com. His first book, Staying Crazy To Keep From Going Insane, is due out in the fall of 2011.

Sponsors Sign On To Support Upcoming Humor Book

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Two entrepreneurs from California sponsor Cris Cohen’s new book.

Cris Cohen's upcoming book. Proceeds will benefit the Miracle League of the Triangle.

 

March 10, 2011 (Cary, NC) – When humor writer/blogger Cris Cohen of Cary, NC, decided to publish a book entitled Staying Crazy To Keep From Going Insane, he announced that he would donate the proceeds from its sales to the Miracle League of the Triangle, a baseball league for kids with special needs. He also announced that he was looking for sponsors to help defray the costs of self-publishing.

 

This week, two entrepreneurs from Cohen’s home state – California – stepped up to the plate. Laura Little of Live A Little More Enterprises in San Luis Obispo, CA, and Gina Gotsill, a writer, editor and voice-over talent with Vocal Variety in the San Francisco Bay area have agreed to be sponsors of Staying Crazy To Keep From Going Insane.

 

Since moving to North Carolina in 2008, Cohen has been writing his Nothing In Particular blog at criscohen.typepad.com. Before the move, he lived in California for most of his life and wrote a humor column that was published regularly in several newspapers. His upcoming book will be a collection of columns from his California career, as well as some new pieces.

 

Gina Gotsill was a regular reader of Cohen’s humor column when it ran in California. “Cris has been keeping us in stiches for years,” she said. “I’m excited about having a book to refer to when we need some comic relief. And it feels great to support Miracle League of the Triangle. It’s such a positive, fun organization and the kids get so much out of it.”

 

After reading several chapters of the book-in-progress, Laura Little commented, “In his upcoming book, Cris promises to entertain and delight his readers with his offbeat sense of humor prompted by the predicaments of daily life. He crafts a love affair between pomp and circumstance with his witticisms. If you’re overdue for a good belly laugh, don’t miss this book!”

 

Staying Crazy To Keep From Going Insane will be published in September in time for the opening of the Miracle League’s fall season. For more information, visit http://stayingcrazy.com.

 

For more information on Cris Cohen, visit http://criscohen.typepad.com.

 

About Cris Cohen:

Cris Cohen is the author of the Nothing In Particular blog. Although he was born in Buffalo, NY, Cris grew up in a suburb of Los Angeles, eventually graduating from the University of Southern California. After a stint in rock radio in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, Cris started writing his humor column for a collection of California newspapers. He eventually gravitated toward the tech world and Silicon Valley, working for companies such as Netscape and Cisco Systems. Cris and his wife Michele and their young son Max moved to Cary, North Carolina, in 2008. Cris’ blog is available at http://criscohen.typepad.com.